i got my green card finally.
yes, it’s not a dream!! woohoo!!
the long long waiting is over now.
all my complaint about immigration service just flew away!
as soon as i ascertained the mail i prayed on my knees thankfully.
and called eugenia to let her know that i can go to PEI in canada for our 2 year anniversary trip!

now i can do anything i want in the united states!
all of sudden there are so many things to do as soon as possible.
1. to renew my driver’s license
2. to start planning to travel out of the states like PEI
3. to start saving money for visiting korea asap
4. to get a job!!

thank you everyone who worried and prayed for me.
man, it’s really time to get a job. no excuse anymore…

and it’s time to enjoy this freedom !!

link: finding
my dream job 01

 

today I will talk about “Transferable Skills.” 

 

1. what are transferable skills?

 

before I start this post let me explain about the
transferable skills. I have many skills, gifts and talents. I learned some of
them from school (ex. mathematics, book keeping), some by myself (ex.
using a computer) and some from work (ex. using MS-Office). However, what I
tried to find were innate abilities that I have utilized to use all my acquired
abilities. these innate abilities are called “Transferable Skills”
according to Richard
Bolles. when we
use these transferable skills we are happy and enjoying the moment because it’s
our “gift” which God gave us even before we were born.

I want to be happy at work and more specifically I want to use the
skills that make me happy at work, which will be more then 70% of the rest of
my lifetime. that’s why figuring out my transferable skills is very important.

 

2. Writing the Success Stories

 

as the book, “What
Color is Your Parachute?” said, to find my transferable skills I wrote
stories about myself. they are more like an essay which tells what kind of skills
I used at happy & successful experiences in my life since I was born. it’s
not about a general everyday experience but a sort of specially memorable
moment. the story must have the following conditions: a goal, an obstacle, a
description of what I did, a result, and any measurable/quantitative statement
of the result.

 

the book recommends to write 7 stories but I wrote more then 20
stories and picked the best 7. here is a summary of one of the stories.

 

Title: building an efficient work system at the army

1. the goal of the activity

- I wanted to improve the work efficiency of the work system &
process so that I can save my time and effort.

2. Obstacles or constraints

- there was an old paper-based work system which was
conservatively & firmly established

- I had to spend 4 months building a new database

- I knew only the basics of Microsoft Excel and Word.

3. Description of what I did

   ➀ I planed what to do for an innovation.

   ➁ I waited and kept on thinking about the
innovation until the senior officer retired so that I can avoid his
conservativeness.

   ➂ I input all the paper data to computerized
forms like Excel and Word for 4 months.

   ➃ I studied MS-Office to make up for the
lack of knowledge and applied it to work.

   ➄ I developed and improved the computer
based work system with MS Excel and Word.

4. Description of the outcome

- great improvement of work efficiency and accuracy

5. Measurable/quantitative statement of the result

- I reduced  working hour to less then 20% of how long it was

- I reduced consumption of paper and printer supplies to less then
50%

 

3. My transferable skills?

 

After I wrote all the stories I analyzed them as the book says. it
was not easy but I was definitely able to see several outstanding skills which
I’ve always used unconsciously. yes, those were my transferable skills. I can
say I do great job when I use these skills, of course, with lots of happiness.
I cannot specifically explain the method here because first, it’s not that
simple and second, I don’t want to violate the copyright of my teacher’s
teacher. but I promise it’s simple.

I could make several sentences about my transferable skills.

1. I collect information through experiencing, observing and
researching a person, an object or a situation.

2. I analyze the collected information.

3. I apply, develop, improve things from the analysis.

4. I advise, couch, counsel, encourage, guide, inspire, convince a
person from the analysis

5. I direct, serving, help people

6. I lecture people

 

and these are my transferable skills extracted from the sentences.
(and another source)

observing

analyzing

discovering / perceiving

sorting / arranging

systematizing

planning

realizing

implementing

adapting

improving

initiating

synergizing

utilizing

inspiring

serving

taking instructions

lecturing

 

I have so many transferable skills! one thing i’m sure about is
that most of my transferable skills are about people and data. I don’t have any
apparent one about material or physical matter such as drawing, carrying,
driving, running or so. I have been designed to work better with people and data rather
then materials. with this list I knew what I can do well and enjoyably.

 

the next step was finding my nature or temper, with which I can tell how I use my trasferable skills. i’ll talk about it
next time.

thank you for reading. =)

link: finding
my dream job 03

i’ve been working on finding my dream job for a couple of months lately. i learned career consulting from one of the best career coaches in Korea at school. his instruction was based on his teacher, Richard Bolles and his book(What Color is Your Parachute?). it was very very helpful. in korea i’ve had successful experiences in getting dream jobs for myself and my friends who i shared all the lessons with. this time i thought i really need to work on myself. yes, it’s because i’ve been staying home for six months now. it’s time to get a “good” job in this country and i must be happy with the job.

i realized that even though i’m about to start my new career in this country pretty late it’s not actually late. at my age, a lot of people drop their current career and start totally different one again because they realize that they are not happy with their current career. however, since i don’t think i have time to restart i must have a sort of dream job at one try.

when we start our first jobs we usually don’t know what we wanna do exactly. we actually start thinking about our future and career when we go to college but it’s not easy to figure out. some are pushed by their parents to go to medical field or law field and some simply follow by trends or friends. and then, of course, we have a hard time to find what we want to do for a living. the sooner, the better! we should find what we want to do, what we can enjoy, what we can do excellently and simply what God gave us.

in my case, 4 years ago, i figured out what i can do and what i wanted to do and got a great job too. but a lot of things changed in the states since i left korea.
- i don’t have american college degree.
- i don’t speak perfect english.
- i don’t completely know the business culture here.
- i am not treated as an experienced one at all here.
- and so on.
however here’s other stuff.
- i can read and write korean perfectly.
- i know asian languages, history, geography, and culture…..i almost got a minor in college.
- i went to the army so i know how to deal with organizations and people.
- i know a lot of stuff about computers, internet and electronic products like all other korean guys.
- as an asian guy i’m pretty good at dealing with number related work which i don’t really enjoy.
- and so on.

with all the differences in this country i had to study and analyze myself again. so now, i can tell what i wanna do, what i can do, what i can enjoy. the work itself was time-consuming but it was very interesting and exciting at the same time. i’m going to share this process here at xanga over several times of posting.

btw, man, this is the longest entry at my xanga ever. thanks for reading.

link: finding my dream job 02

after long long delay i finally went to U.S. immigration service center to give them my biometric information(fingerprint and face picture) again. now i am supposed to grab my greencard in a month and i strongly hope this is the last process for that.

believe or not, i started all the process for the greencard about 2 years ago and it’s been taking forever. a year ago i thought i almost got it because my wife, eugenia and i went through the interview to prove that we were not married for any other purpose except ‘love.’ =) however we moved to jersey from florida and somehow my biometric information disappeared in their database! we didn’t know that and we’d waited and waited to get the greencard but, of course, it never came to us.

fortunately i was able to work because they gave me a stamp on my passport which proves that i was a permanent resident of the united states. it had the effect for a year so it expired a few months ago. and i still didn’t get my greencard yet!

i don’t want to describe how complicated all the work was here. it was long and unpleasant work. however, today, i finally went through the last process again. i understand the U.S. immigration service is dealing with enormous immigrating people and work so i’m not going to complain. i just really hope this time i can get the greencard. without it i cannot work or study. i can’t even go out of this country. and also i cannot renew my driver’s license which will be expired in next month. without the greencard i’m pretty much screwed in this country and that will suck…

so now all i need to do is praying. God will give me what i need as he does always.

i live on the 5th floor which is a top floor. this summer, i’ve got two problems.

1. too hard to walk up the stairs : man, i thought i was going to have stronger legs when i moved in this apartment. i was wrong. it’s become harder and harder to climb up as time goes on.

2. too hot to stay during the daytime : even though we have two air conditioners it’s still so hot. the worst thing is that i can feel the hot, yes literally hot, air from the ceiling when i stand up. so in the daytime i usually spend time on the couch or  at my desk. funny thing is that you can feel the separating line between hot air from ceiling and cold A/C air accumulating from the floor. and also when i go to the front door or bathroom i can feel the heat wave.

we just signed for one more year in this apartment so i guess i have to endure this pain for a while. we still love our apartment but next year when i move out i’ll never find a top floor apt.